Western screech-owl • Megascops kennicottii kennicottii

Photos by Julian Heavyside (left) and Jeremiah Kennedy.

IdentificationThis small, stocky owl has a relatively large and somewhat square-shaped head with very little neck. Its ear tufts are usually visible, and it has yellow eyes and a pale face outlined by dark crescents. The overall body colour can be greyish, brownish, or reddish-brown; those found on the northwest coast tend to be darker and grey to grey-brown. This owl is well-camouflaged among tree trunks and branches. Light streaks on its dark back and heavy dark streaks and thin dark barring on its paler front help it virtually disappear against any bark background.

The western screech-owl makes a wide array of vocalizations from barks and yips to chirps and trills. The most commonly heard call is its courtship song which sounds like a "bouncing ball." It is a series of progressively quickening hoots that tend to be about the same pitch. This is a good call to remember if you want a chance of encountering this almost strictly nocturnal species as it is much more likely to be heard than seen.

​Habitat & RangeThe western screech-owl is a resident species, occupying the same territory year round, however territories are often constricted around nest sites during the breeding season. There are two subspecies in BC: the macfarlanei subspecies is found from the southern interior of BC south to southern Idaho, while the kennicottii subspecies is found along the Pacific coast from southern Alaska to southern Oregon. The species as a whole ranges from southern Alaska to Central Mexico. The kennicottii subspecies inhabits low elevation coniferous and mixed forests, often next to permanent fresh water features such as lakes, creeks and rivers. Along the Central Coast this subspecies has recently been observed abundantly in open bog mixed with patchy old growth coniferous forest. These areas provide access to permanent fresh water teeming with aquatic insects, rodents and amphibians along with large dead snags for nesting. Nests are made in holes excavated by woodpeckers or fissures formed from cracks in the trunk. Though they love water and old growth, any mixed or transitional forest along the Central Coast is worth checking for these elusive owls.

The kennicottii subspecies has declined drastically in most of the monitored portions of its coastal Canadian range, including the south coast of British Columbia where populations are nearly non-existent. While the extent of population declines along BC's Central and North Coasts is unknown, declines are probable as they have also been noted in Alaska and northern Vancouver Island.

Find more information at the British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas here.

Intriguing InfoThe field journals in the Ian McTaggart Cowan collection at the University of Victoria's contain multiple coastal BC records of the kennicottii subspecies of western screech-owl, though at the time there was no distinction between the western and the eastern species (this separation occurred in the 1980s). The journals containing these records are as follows: 1) Ian McTaggart-Cowan species index (1939-1942): birds; 2) Ian McTaggart-Cowan field trips (1935-61); 3) Kenneth Racey field notes (1924-1938): Lulu Island, Sea Island, Revelstoke, Lillooet, Vancouver, Alta Lake; and 4) Patrick Martin field notes (1939): Fitzhugh Sound, Spider Island. Search "screech owl" within the documents to find these records.

Conservation: Both western screech-owl subspecies are listed as threatened by Canada's Species At Risk Act. A major threat causing declines in the coastal subspecies is the destruction of suitable low-elevation forested habitat over the past century, particularly in clear-cuts where the snags important for nesting are also removed. Urban development and commercial logging continue to cause deforestation in these habitats, but as of yet no studies have closely examined the relationship between forestry options and western screech-owl populations.

Predation by newly-established resident barred owls (Strix varia) is another threat: the barred owl range expanded westward across Canada and into BC and the northwestern US in the twentieth century and is speculated to have been a major factor in the declines of western screech-owls along the west coast of BC and Washington. At locations where there is information on western screech-owl populations before and after barred owl arrival increases in barred owl populations have coincided with the declines of western screech-owl populations.